VVB Step 1

= Installing Apache, MySQL, PHP, PEAR, Smarty =

To cover what these are briefly (apologies if any of this is too basic):
* Apache is a web server – this is the software that speaks ‘http’ and serves up web pages when your browser requests them
* MySQL is a relational database system – the database that powers VuFind
* PHP is a programming language commonly used for web applications
* PEAR – the PHP Extension and Application Repository – basically a framework for ‘plug and play’ additions to PHP
* Smarty – a templating system for producing web pages with PHP – VuFind uses this to produce pages for the VuFind web interface

== Windows ==
Although you can install all of these components separately, the easiest way of getting up and running is using a pre-packaged installation which covers as much of this as possible. [http://www.wampserver.com/en/ WAMP] is one possibility, but I found configuring PEAR slightly awkward with this, so here I’m recommending [http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html XAMPP].

XAMPP will install Apache, MySQL, PHP and PEAR for you in one go (along with some other stuff). Suggest read through these instructions, and [http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/xampp_install.swf view the screencast] if unsure:

* Download XAMPP from http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html#641 (I recommend the ‘EXE’ file labelled ‘Self-extracting RAR archive’)
[[File:xampp_download.png]]
* Double click the downloaded file (which will be named something like xampp-win32-1.7.3.exe)
* A window titled ‘XAMPP for Windows’ should appear
* You should be prompted for a ‘Destination’ folder, with the default setting of ‘C:’ – this is fine unless you specifically want to change it
* Click ‘Install’
* The relevant files will be ‘extracted’ – this may take 2 minutes or so
* Once all the files have been extracted, a ‘command window’ should appear (a.k.a. DOS prompt) – that is a text based interface which will prompt you as follows (with recommended responses):
** Whether to add shortcuts to start menu and desktop – Y
** Whether to locate the XAMPP Paths correctly – Y
** Proceed – Y
** Make a portable XAMPP – N
** You should see some messages at this point about ‘relocating XAMPP’, and then the message ‘XAMPP is ready to use’ – you’ll need to press the Return key at this point to continue
** The installation procedure will try to ‘guess’ your timezone – it will tell you what it has guessed, but you can’t correct at this stage if it’s wrong, so just make a note if it is incorrect. If it is correct you don’t need to do anything
* At this point you should get a menu in the command window, use option ‘1’ to start the ‘XAMPP Control Panel’ (N.B. this option should also have been added to the start menu/desktop, so you could just exit at this point, and start XAMPP Control Panel via one of these other routes)
* Once the XAMPP Control Panel is displaying, you can start Apache by clicking the ‘Start’ button to the right of the label ‘Apache’ in the control panel
** You can view the whole sequence of installing XAMPP in [http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/xampp_install.swf this screencast]
** When you start Apache in the XAMPP Control Panel, you may be prompted by a Windows Security Alert from the Windows Firewall – if so, click ‘Unblock’
[[File:Windows_security_alert.png]]

That’s it – you’ve installed Apache, MySQL, PHP and PEAR, and started Apache running. To check this is all working open a web browser and type in the following address:
* http://localhost/
You should find that you get a web page that says ‘Congratulations: You have successfully install XAMPP on this system’. Note that you need Apache to be running to see this message – so check this is running in the XAMPP control panel if you get an error saying something like ‘Unable to connect’.

The final part of this stage is to install something called ‘Smarty’. This is a PHP ‘templating’ system that is used to produce VuFind’s web pages.

Download the latest stable release of Smarty from http://www.smarty.net/download.php. This will download a zip file of the relevant files.
[[File:smarty_download.png]]

To install Smarty:
* Open the zip file with WinZip or similar. In the zip file there will be a folder named Smarty-2.6.26 or similar
* Inside this folder are two further folders ‘lib’ and ‘demo’
* It is the contents of ‘lib’ that you need
* Extract the contents of ‘lib’ to a new folder called ‘smarty’ under your XAMPP/PHP/PEAR install. For example for me this was:
** C:xamppphpPEARsmarty
** N.B. The folder ‘smarty’ won’t already exist, you’ll need to create it
* Make sure that in the folder c:xamppphpPEARsmarty you have the file ‘Smarty.class.php’. You should also have some other files and the folders ‘internals’ and ‘plugins’
* You can view [http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/smarty_install.swf a screencast of installing Smarty]

That’s it – all done. Now it’s on to [[VVB Step 2]]

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